POP ROCK 2013
Tracks selected by Marta Salicrú (music coordinator, Time Out Barcelona) in collaboration with Anna Cerdà (coordinator, Pop Arb Festival), Nando Cruz (music journalist), Jordi Herreruela (coordinator, Cases de la Música), Albert Puig (music journalist) and Guillem Vidal (music journalist). Text by Marta Salicrú and foreword by Stacey L. Wilhelm (Music Festival Programmer, SXSW, Austin, USA).
Foreword I have had the good fortune to visit Catalonia a few times and each time proves better than the last. I have befriended some of the loveliest people and experienced many a beautiful evening enjoying wonderful food, wine, friendship and inspiration. Additionally, I have been introduced to many outstanding bands and artists and witnessed amazing live performances. My one regret is that I do not speak the language. However, when digesting these songs, I don’t need to know what they are singing to know what they are feeling. Or better yet, to know how they make me feel. In much the same way that the people of Catalonia are inviting, sincere and genuine, so is the music. The influences vary widely from band to band, with some of the more familiar elements of indie rock, punk, psych, folk, vaudeville and others with more regional roots. Yet with each of the songs in this catalog, the true art form of pop is perfectly executed. The songs are catchy, mood effecting and well crafted with universal appeal and earnest delivery. While these artists may all reside in the same area of the world and for that share a sense a community and pride, I think it is important to note that the music is meant for all to enjoy. Much like my experiences in Catalonia itself, this music welcomes and embraces me, filling me with comfort and excitement and keeps me great company. There is an overwhelming amount of creativity and artistry that is cultivated in Catalonia, and I think it is especially evident in this music.
Stacey L. Wilhelm (Music Festival Programmer, SXSW, Austin, USA)
Photo: Lurdes R. Basolí
Sílvia Pérez Cruz Lietzenburgerstrasse 1976 (3.26) Album: 11 de Novembre Author: Feliu Formosa, Sílvia Pérez Cruz www.silviaperezcruz.com Sílvia Pérez Cruz is the most vibrant voice to come out of Catalonia in the last decade, a voice able to move even the stoniest of hearts. The singer from L’Empordà has also proven herself to be a gifted songwriter with the debut of her solo project, a mix of singer-songwriter, folk music and avant-garde pop, influenced by traditional Catalan music, flamenco, fado and traditional Brazilian music.
01 Record company Universal Music Spain S.L. Torrelaguna, 64 E-28043 Madrid Tel.: +34 902 088 888 www.universalmusic.es Contact Álex Sánchez alex.sanchez@umusic.com Management Gisela Sais Pintor Fortuny, 25 2n 1ª E-08001 Barcelona Tel.: +34 699 582 613 gisela@silviaperezcruz.com
By courtesy of Universal Music Spain S.L. under exclusive licence of Sílvia Pérez Cruz S.L.
02 Record company and management BCore Disc P.O. Box 35221 E-08080 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 197 883 www.bcoredisc.com Contact Jordi Llansamà (label) bcore@bcoredisc.com Tule (David Tauler) (management) management@bcoredisc.com
Joan Colomo El Xiprer (2.59) Album: Producto Interior Bruto vol.2 Author: Joan Colomo With a long career fronting power rock groups like La Célula Durmiente and Zeidun, in his prolific solo project—three albums in four years—the Sant Celoni musician demonstrates his talent as a pop alchemist, capable of conjuring, apparently effortlessly, the magic formula for making truly catchy tunes. His songs are enriched with simple lyrics that hit home.
03 (2.39)
Renaldo & Clara Lilà
Album: Lilà Author: Clara Viñals Be careful with the songs of this young singersongwriter from Lleida: listen to them, and you run the risk of ending up with a broken heart. Deliciously sad, charmingly melancholy, Clara Viñals sings them with a sweet voice that reflects her Western Catalonia roots, caressing them with her guitar and adorning them with exquisite acoustic arrangements. She delivers them in small doses, to avoid doing too much damage all at once. And you always want more.
Record company and management Elefant Records P.O. Box 331 E-28230 Las Rozas (Madrid) Tel.: +34 918 594 227 http://elefant.com Contact Luis Calvo luis@elefant.com
Record company Amniòtic Records Santa Eugènia, 21A 6è 2a E-17005 Girona Tel.: +34 972 410 388 www.amniotic-records.com Contact Robert Garcia info@amniotic-records.com Management Louise Sansom contratacion@ferranpalau.com
(4.14) Album: L’aigua del rierol Author: Ferran Palau
Ferran Palau Terra de blat
04
www.ferranpalau.com Ferran Palau is one of the voices of the band Anímic, the titans of Catalan indie-folk, and is the man responsible for the most pastoral songs in their repertoire. His debut solo album, L’aigua del rierol, is like a walk in the forest, intimate and warm, in which his voice and guitar are accompanied by delicate string and wind arrangements, composed by the jazz guitarist Jordi Matas.
fa ng
Photo: Irene Visa
P Un au gr Val an lvé riu de
(3.50)
Album: De bosc Author: Pau Vallvé www.pauvallve.com The Barcelona multi-instrumentalist and producer -founder of Amniòtic Records, one of the most personal and interesting boutique labels in Catalonia- has created a singer-songwriter work which is as highly intimate as it is epic, introspective as well as a chronicle of his times. Times in which social rights are under attack, seen through the piercing and moving gaze of one of the great talents of the Catalan indie scene.
05 Record company Amniòtic Records Santa Eugènia, 21A 6è 2a E-17005 Girona Tel.: +34 972 410 388 www.amniotic-records.com Contact Robert Garcia info@amniotic-records.com Management Buenritmo Via Laietana, 37, planta 4 despatx 34 E-08003 Barcelona Tel.: +34 932 690 374 www.buenritmo.es Contact Jordi Ramírez contractacio@pauvallve.com
06 Record company and management Bankrobber AP. 9099 E-08080 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 154 064 www.bankrobber.net Contact Marçal Lladó (label) Xavier Riembau (management) bankrobber@bankrobber.net
Isaac Ulam Viure amb tu (3.34) Album: Murtra Author: Isaac Ulam The myrtle which gives its name to Isaac Ulam’s second album is a Mediterranean plant, as Mediterranean as the pop-folk of this singersongwriter from Blanes, the port of the Costa Brava, the ‘Big Sur’ of Catalonia, where sea and mountains meet. Ulam’s songs are bright and warm like the sun, heartfelt, vital and authentic, beautiful and intense like the land of their roots, with a hint of American folk which doesn’t obscure their origins.
07
Miquel Serra Opilions (2.39) Album: Miquel Serra (2009-2010) Author: Miquel Serra This Majorcan musician inhabits the precise middle ground between the Balearic Islands and the Appalachian Mountains, a land of Mediterranean folk and contemporary psychedelia. Oplions —included in the compilation published now by the Barcelona label Foehn that reunites the two albums he released himself between 2009 and 2010— is like he whisked off Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes and The Dodos to sail in a llaüt, the typically Majorcan boat.
Record company and management Foehn Records Comte Borrell, 163 7è 4a E-08015 Barcelona Tel.: +34 619 424 882 www.foehnrecords.com Contact Marc Campillo marc@foehnrecords.com
08 Record company and management BCore Disc PoBox 35221 E-08080 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 197 883 www.bcoredisc.com Contact Jordi Llansamà (label) bcore@bcoredisc.com Tule (David Tauler) (management) management@bcoredisc.com
Maria Rodés Cae lo que fuego fue (3.31) Album: Sueño triangular Author: Maria Rodés After spending a year writing down her dreams, Maria Rodés from Barcelona used this nocturnal collection as inspiration for her third album. The result, Sueño triangular, is a recording of dreamlike landscapes and textures, painted using an extensive musical palette, in which songs mutate and take unexpected paths, as in the nightmare-made-song that is Cae lo que fuego fue, enigmatic and suggestive.
Esperit! Elèctric mustela (2.56) Album: Elèctric mustela Author: Mau Boada That the solo project of Mau Boada (one half of the influential experimental duo Les Aus) was chosen to open for Daniel Johnston in his last visit to Barcelona was no random choice. His music, packed with brilliant and delirious imagery, is a psychedelic trip which he projects on stage as a one-man orchestra with a hallucinated smile, using voice, guitar and tape loops. The crazy genius from Montseny.
09 Record company and management Bankrobber AP. 9099 E-08080 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 154 064 www.bankrobber.net Contact Marçal Lladó (label) mllado@bankrobber.net Xavier Riembau (management) bankrobber@bankrobber.net
10 Record company and management Chesapik Secretari Coloma, 42 E-08025 Barcelona Tel.:+34 932 133 338 www.chesapik.com Contact Jordi Freixa info@chesapik.com
(3.31)
Very Pomelo Xino xano
Album: Radio clotxa Author: Xarim Aresté A clotxa is a Catalan variant of pita, bread which can be filled with the most diverse ingredients. The title of Very Pomelo’s third album serves as the perfect metaphor for the music produced by the virtuoso band from Tarragona, led by Xarim Aresté—one of the hottest guitarists in Catalonia. An eclectic offering of rock with American roots, blues, folk, rockabilly and even Catalan rumba.
(2.56)
Mates Mates El pinsà
11
Album: Vida animal Author: Mates Mates http://famelic.com/grups/matesmates This very youthful quintet is one of the main exponents of the rising indie scene of the Vic area, in the heart of Catalonia. It’s said that they inherited their music directly from Ona Laietana, Barcelona’s home-grown version of progressive rock in the 70s. But the result, crazy and arrhythmic with a bright trombone, ends up halfway between the more extravagant pop of British New Wave and the iconoclasm of Pavement.
Record company and management Famèlic St. Antoni, 31 E-08570 Torelló Tel.: +34 635 641 028 www.famelic.com Contact Sergi Egea info@famelic.com
12 Record company Robot Innocent Companyia Discogràfica Monti-Sion, 16A, 1er 1a E-17001 Palma de Mallorca Tel.: +34 932 427 912 www.finaestampa.es Contact Gerardo Sanz info@finaestampa.es Management Fina Estampa Produccions, S.L Lleida, 13, 4rt 2a E-08004 Barcelona Tel.: +34 932 427 912 www.finaestampa.es Contact Gerardo Sanz info@finaestampa.es
Antònia Font Sol de taronges / Per jo i tots es ciclistes (1.03 / 1.55) Àlbum: Vostè és aquí Author: Joan Miquel Oliver www.antoniafont.com Purely and simply, these Majorcans are the best pop group in the Catalan-speaking regions, largely responsible for the highly creative period which Catalan music—and in Catalan—has been experiencing in the last decade. Their latest stroke of genius is Vostè és aquí, an eclectic collection of 40 micro-songs (many not even 2 minutes long; not one makes it to 3) from which we’ve chosen two: just one would leave you wanting more.
The Free Fall Band When the Apple Tree (4.21) Album: Elephants Never Forget Author: Jan Bosch Schips http://thefreefallband.bandcamp.com The debut of this very youthful group from Mataró—all of them barely twenty—was one of the most pleasant musical surprises of 2012 in Catalonia. What’s their secret? An inborn talent for melody, which manifests itself in more or less explicit tributes to The Zombies, Orange Juice, Dexys and The Wave Pictures, a gathering of instruments which includes saxophone and clarinet, and a spectacular live show, highly unusual in people so new to the scene.
13 Record company and management Buenritmo Producciones, S.L. Via Laietana, 37, Planta 4 despatx 34 E-08003 Barcelona Tel.: +34 932 690 374 www.buenritmo.es
Contact Jordi Ramírez info@buenritmo.es
14 Record company and management Sones Marina, 63 L3 E-08013 Barcelona Tel.: +34 933 198 971 www.sones.es Contact VĂctor Velasco info@sones.es
Fred i Son Un altre temps (3.54) Album: Un altre temps Author: Fred i son In Barcelona, Fred i Son are heirs to the most elegant aspect of New Wave, privileged students of the most intimate Prefab Sprout and the guitar pop of the cult label Sarah Records, as well as the melancholy of La Buena Vida, together with the Mediterranean nuance which taps into Spanish guitar. The string arrangements and the trumpet embellish the songs of Xavi RosĂŠs.
Photo: Noemí Elías
T Ri he sa N s e ew nl R at a e ad m as on
(4.41)
Album: Tinieblas, por fin Author: Ramón Rodríguez Quintana www.thenewraemon.com After finishing his spell at the head of the Anglophile emocore band Madee, Ramón Rodríguez reinvented himself as the Spanish-language singer-songwriter, The New Raemon. But in his last two albums, the two facets have been fused, resulting in electric, breath-taking original songs with sharp and aggressive sounds and lyrics, in his mother tongue.
15 Record company Marxophone Gran Vía, 69, 4º 411 E-28013 Madrid Tel.: +34 915 413 805 www.marxophone.es Contact Tomás Heredero tomas@marxophone.es Management I’m An Artist Gran Vía, 69, 4º 411 E-28013 Madrid Tel.: +34 915 413 805 www.imanartist.es Contact Juan Santaner juan@imanartist.es
16 Record company The Rest Is Silence / Warner Lleida 13, 4rt 2a E-08004 Barcelona Tel.: +34 932 427 912 www.finaestampa.es Contact Gerardo Sanz info@finaestampa.es Management Fina Estampa Produccions, S.L Lleida, 13, 4rt 2a E-08004 Barcelona Tel.: +34 932 427 912 www.finaestampa.es Contact Gerardo Sanz info@finaestampa.es
Mishima Els crits (3.54) Album: L’amor feliç Author: David Carabén www.facebook.com/mishimabcn They are currently one of the most relevant groups in Catalan pop. Mishima have taken the leap from the indie scene to the large audience by building a solid career over the last decade based on the lyrical and moving songs of David Carabén, embellished with muscular instrumentation and an epic touch. Their latest album, one of the best of their musical career, experiments with typical krautrock rhythms By courtesy of Warner Music Spain S.L. under licence by The Rest Is Silence
Svper La melodía del afilador (4.30) Album: Pegasvs Author: Svper (formerly known as Pegasvs) http://pegasvs.tumblr.com Two veterans of the Barcelona indie scene, the Asturian Sergio Pérez García, right-hand-man of the techno troubadour Joe Crepúsculo, and the Argentinean Luciana della Villa, a member of the defunct female trio Sybil Vane, ride a winged horse to a motorik beat. An atmospheric, rhythmic and euphoric electronic rock, based on vintage synthesisers and the voice of Luciana, who was heard at the 2012 Primavera Sound and Sonar festivals.
17 Record company and management Canada Editorial Almogàvers, 68-70, 8è Tel.: +34 933 568 483 E-08018 Barcelona www.laeditorialdecanada.com Contact Borja Rosal editorial@lawebdecanada.com
18 Record company and management Austrohúngaro Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 278 6è 1a E-08041 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 568 254 www.austrohungaro.com Contact Carlos Ballesteros producto@austrohungaro.com
Hidrogenesse Enigma (3.36) Album: Un dígito binario dudoso Author: Carlos Ballesteros, Genís Segarra www.austrohungaro.com/hidrogenesse The conceptual electropop produced by the Barcelona duo Hidrogenesse is the most intelligent popular music currently being made in Spain. Proof of this is their album on the life and work of the mathematician Alan Turing—the man who deciphered the coded messages of the Nazis with the Enigma machine, the father of modern computing and who was condemned to chemical castration for being homosexual—released in his centenary year.
Prats Sookie (3.58)
Album: Pla B Author: Marc Prats The keyboardist of the band The New Raemon, and previously also of Madee, Marc Prats, takes on the role of front man in this new project, with his surname as its title and with his own songs. Infectious, melodic pop, inherited from 90s indie rock, adorned with forceful instrumentation, edgy electric guitars and powerful drums.
19 Record company and management BCore Disc PoBox 35221 E-08080 Barcelona Tel.: +34 934 197 883 www.bcoredisc.com Contact Jordi LlansamĂ (label) bcore@bcoredisc.com Tule (David Tauler) (management) management@bcoredisc.com
20 Record company Música Global Discogràfica S.L Santa Eugènia 21A 6è 2a E-17005 Girona Tel.: +34 972 410 388 www.musicaglobal.cat Contact Robert Garcia oficina@musicaglobal.com Management Quisso Records Mas El Sunyer E-08511 Tavertet Tel.: +34 938 893 721 www.quimiportet.com Contact Montse Nogués montse_n@movistar.es
Quimi Portet Oh My Love (3.29) Album: Oh My Love Author: Quimi Portet One half of the defunct El Último de la Fila, a Barcelona pop band with flamenco and Andalusian influences who were massively successful in Spain at the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, since their break-up, veteran Quimi Portet has recycled himself as an iconoclastic singer-songwriter, brilliant and clairvoyant, with highly personal imagery. A rare bird. A national treasure.
Catalan! Music is the label created by the Catalan Institute for the Cultural Companies to identify and disseminate the work of musicians and artists from Catalonia, as well as that of the music industry that supports them: labels, managers, bookers and festivals, among others. The site www.catalanarts.cat reflects all the actions developed by Catalan! Music to favour the international promotion of Catalan music. These actions include the coordination of the Catalan presence in international fairs and festivals, the support to professional networks both in Catalonia and abroad, consultancy services and the creation of promotional and marketing tools –such as this CD, that aims to collect some of the latest and most interesting contributions made by Catalan musicians to the pop rock scene. + info: www.catalanarts.cat
ICEC Barcelona Passatge de la Banca, 1-3 E-08002 Barcelona Tel.: +34 933 162 770 internacional.icec@gencat.cat
ICEC London 107 - 111, Fleet Street UK-London EC4A 2AB Tel.: +44 20 79 36 90 26 london.icec@gencat.cat
ICEC Berlin Charlottenstr. 18 D-10117 Berlin Tel.: +49 30 551 95 40 berlin.icec@t-online.de
ICEC Milano Via Montebello, 27 I-20121 Milano Tel.: +39 02 29 00 46 41 icec.milano@gencat.it
ICEC Bruxelles / Brussel Delegació del Govern de Catalunya davant de la UE 227, Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat B-1040 Bruxelles / Brussel Tel.: +32 2 230 72 21 brussels.icec@gencat.be
ICEC Paris 3, rue la Boétie Esc. AF-75008 París Tel.: +33 1 43 25 04 35 icec.paris@sfr.fr
1. Sílvia Pérez Cruz: Lietzenburgerstrasse 1976 (3.26)¹ 2. Joan Colomo: El xiprer (2.59) 3. Renaldo & Clara: Lilà (2.39) 4. Ferran Palau: Terra de blat (4.14) 5. Pau Vallvé: Un gran riu de fang (3.50) 6. Isaac Ulam: Viure amb tu (3.34) 7. Miquel Serra: Opilions (3.18) 8. Maria Rodés: Cae lo que fuego fue (3.31) 9. Esperit!: Elèctric mustela (2.56) 10. Very Pomelo: Xino xano (3.49) 11. Mates Mates: El pinsà (2.26) 12. Antònia Font: Sol de taronges / Per jo i tots es ciclistes (1.03 / 1.55) 13. The Free Fall Band: When the Apple Tree (4.21) 14. Fred i Son: Un altre temps (3.54) 15. The New Raemon: Risas enlatadas (4.41) 16. Mishima: Els crits (4.13)² 17. Svper: La melodía del afilador (4.30) 18. Hidrogenesse: Enigma (3.36) 19. Prats: Sookie (3.58) 20. Quimi Portet: Oh My Love(3.29) 1. By courtesy of Universal Music Spain S.L. under exclusive licence of Sílvia Pérez Cruz S.L. 2. By courtesy of Warner Music Spain S.L. under licence by The Rest Is Silence